In honor of my 100th post, I thought I'd share with you this clip of a game that took place yesterday. It was the NCAA Division II Championship Game between Findlay (from Ohio) and Cal Poly Pomona. Findlay came in undefeated, the game went into overtime. And then this is how it ended up:
This is yet another reason why I love this time of the year...
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Monday, March 23, 2009
Reflecting on the Retirement of Curt Schilling
I heard come across the news wire that Curt Schilling has retired. It's kind of a bittersweet day because of that. He is one of my favorite pitchers and probably one of the best Postseason pitchers. He was the kind of guy that if you handed him the ball in a playoff game, nine times out of ten he'll get you in a position to win.
He was in four World Series (1993, 2001, 2004, 2007) and won three of them with two teams (Arizona and Boston). He posted a postseason record of 11-2 with a 2.23 ERA.
To me, he will be remembered for the 2004 postseason where he had the tendon injury in his ankle and had to have surgery just to pitch in Game 6 of the ALCS. The "Bloody Sock" game helped Boston in their huge comeback against the rival Yankees and helped propel the team into the World Series where he pitched again with the bloody sock and all to a victory and a World Series win for the first time in 86 years.
His last game was fittingly Game 2 of the 2007 World Series against the Rockies with a win.
He was a great pitcher and character in baseball. He will be missed. Curt, good luck in all that you do down the road.
He was in four World Series (1993, 2001, 2004, 2007) and won three of them with two teams (Arizona and Boston). He posted a postseason record of 11-2 with a 2.23 ERA.
To me, he will be remembered for the 2004 postseason where he had the tendon injury in his ankle and had to have surgery just to pitch in Game 6 of the ALCS. The "Bloody Sock" game helped Boston in their huge comeback against the rival Yankees and helped propel the team into the World Series where he pitched again with the bloody sock and all to a victory and a World Series win for the first time in 86 years.
His last game was fittingly Game 2 of the 2007 World Series against the Rockies with a win.
He was a great pitcher and character in baseball. He will be missed. Curt, good luck in all that you do down the road.
The Aftermath of Week 1 of March Madness
The first weekend of March Madness has come and gone and with it a lot of cheering, booing, excitement and marking on brackets. After the first weekend of the tourney, I have only one team that I'm rooting for still in it (Gonzaga). My other two teams were elimated in the first and second rounds (Tennessee and Washington).
There weren't that many upsets. As far as "Cinderella" teams remaining in the Sweet 16 there is only Arizona (12 seed) and I don't know if I would call them a Cinderella team. In some ways, it's starting to shape up like last year with four #1 seeds in the Final Four with so many favorites winning.
As far as my brackets go, several bit the dust early and some are still doing pretty good. My best overall bracket is one that saw me pick 14 out of 16 for the second round and still has it perfect all the way to the championship game. It'll be interesting after next weekend how my brackets will look.
There weren't that many upsets. As far as "Cinderella" teams remaining in the Sweet 16 there is only Arizona (12 seed) and I don't know if I would call them a Cinderella team. In some ways, it's starting to shape up like last year with four #1 seeds in the Final Four with so many favorites winning.
As far as my brackets go, several bit the dust early and some are still doing pretty good. My best overall bracket is one that saw me pick 14 out of 16 for the second round and still has it perfect all the way to the championship game. It'll be interesting after next weekend how my brackets will look.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
March Madness Brackets
It's that time of the year again. Yep March Madness :) Part of my favorite time of the year. And along with that comes filling out brackets. And I'm not the only one filling out a bracket. All across the country, people are filling out brackets in office pools, among friends, online on sites such as ESPN.com, Facebook and others. Sportscasters, athletes, and celebrities have filled out brackets. Even President Obama has his bracket filled out and posted. It is an event that draws a lot of attention.
Before I shared about my brackets, I wanted to share some video (from ESPN.com) about some people filling out brackets. First is Dwayne Wade and Samuel L. Jackson:
The second is of President Obama:
Now on to my brackets. This year I filled out the most brackets I've ever filled out (14). 10 of those on ESPN.com, 3 on Yahoo.com, and 1 on Facebook (via CBSSports.com). I filled them out in a variety of ways. I went with the scientific (Each team's record vs Tournament teams, record the last 12 games, Power rankings) as well as the random (school mascots, flip of a coin, drawing numbers out of a hat).
I do have my one go-to bracket. In that bracket, this is my final four: Louisville, Missouri, Pittsburgh and Oklahoma. The championshp game: Louisville vs. Pittsburgh. Champion: Pittsburgh
Good luck to everyone filling out brackets!
Before I shared about my brackets, I wanted to share some video (from ESPN.com) about some people filling out brackets. First is Dwayne Wade and Samuel L. Jackson:
The second is of President Obama:
Now on to my brackets. This year I filled out the most brackets I've ever filled out (14). 10 of those on ESPN.com, 3 on Yahoo.com, and 1 on Facebook (via CBSSports.com). I filled them out in a variety of ways. I went with the scientific (Each team's record vs Tournament teams, record the last 12 games, Power rankings) as well as the random (school mascots, flip of a coin, drawing numbers out of a hat).
I do have my one go-to bracket. In that bracket, this is my final four: Louisville, Missouri, Pittsburgh and Oklahoma. The championshp game: Louisville vs. Pittsburgh. Champion: Pittsburgh
Good luck to everyone filling out brackets!
Sunday, March 1, 2009
2009 Major League Baseball Predictions
Well, it's that time of the year so it means time for predictions sure to be less than correct...but it's fun to predict anyway. so here we go:
AL East:
Boston (division winner)
Tampa Bay
NY Yankees
Toronto
Baltimore
AL Central:
Minnesota (division winner)
Kansas City (wild card)
Cleveland
Detroit
Chicago White Sox
AL West:
Seattle (division winner)
Texas
Anaheim (LA) Angels
Oakland
NL East:
Philadelphia (division winner)
Atlanta
Florida
NY Mets
Washington
NL Central:
Chicago Cubs (division winner)
St. Louis (wild card)
Cincinnatti
Milwaukee
Houston
Pittsburgh
NL West:
Arizona (division winner)
San Francisco
Los Angeles
Colorado
San Diego
Playoffs:
ALCS: Boston vs. Kansas City
NLCS: Philadelphia vs. Chicago Cubs
World Series: Boston vs. Chicago Cubs
Champs: Boston Red Sox
AL MVP: David Ortiz
NL MVP: Albert Pujols
AL Cy Young: Jon Lester
NL Cy Young: Cole Hamels
AL East:
Boston (division winner)
Tampa Bay
NY Yankees
Toronto
Baltimore
AL Central:
Minnesota (division winner)
Kansas City (wild card)
Cleveland
Detroit
Chicago White Sox
AL West:
Seattle (division winner)
Texas
Anaheim (LA) Angels
Oakland
NL East:
Philadelphia (division winner)
Atlanta
Florida
NY Mets
Washington
NL Central:
Chicago Cubs (division winner)
St. Louis (wild card)
Cincinnatti
Milwaukee
Houston
Pittsburgh
NL West:
Arizona (division winner)
San Francisco
Los Angeles
Colorado
San Diego
Playoffs:
ALCS: Boston vs. Kansas City
NLCS: Philadelphia vs. Chicago Cubs
World Series: Boston vs. Chicago Cubs
Champs: Boston Red Sox
AL MVP: David Ortiz
NL MVP: Albert Pujols
AL Cy Young: Jon Lester
NL Cy Young: Cole Hamels
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Another Positive Story from the World of Sports
I read about this story on Monday. I wanted to share it with you. It comes from ESPN.com and I think that it pretty much speaks for itself. I'll only add that this is one reason why I enjoy sports and what they can bring to people involved:
Two missed free throws, ordinarily the cause of a coach's headache, became the symbol of sportsmanship in a Milwaukee boys' basketball game earlier this month.
Milwaukee Madison senior Johntell Franklin, who lost his mother, Carlitha, to cancer on Saturday, Feb. 7, decided he wanted to play in that night's game against DeKalb (Ill.) High School after previously indicating he would sit out.
He arrived at the gym in the second quarter, but Franklin's name was not in the scorebook because his coach, Aaron Womack Jr., didn't expect him to be there.
Rules dictated Womack would have to be assessed a technical, but he was prepared to put Franklin in the game anyway. DeKalb coach Dave Rohlman and his players knew of the situation, and told the referees they did not want the call.
The referees had no choice. But Rohlman did.
"I gathered my kids and said, 'Who wants to take these free throws?'" Rohlman said, recounting the game to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "Darius McNeal put up his hand. I said, 'You realize you're going to miss, right?' He nodded his head."
McNeal, a senior point guard, went to the line. The Milwaukee Madison players stayed by their bench, waiting for the free throws. Instead of seeing the ball go through the net, they saw the ball on the court, rolling over the end line.
"I turned around and saw the ref pick up the ball and hand it back to the player," Womack said in the Journal Sentinel. "And then [McNeal] did the same thing again."
Said Rohlman: "Darius set up for a regular free throw, but he only shot it two or three feet in front of him. It bounced once or twice and just rolled past the basket."
"I did it for the guy who lost his mom," McNeal told the newspaper. "It was the right thing to do."
Womack, overwhelmed by DeKalb's gesture, wrote a letter to the DeKalb Daily Chronicle, which had first reported the story.
"As a principal, school, school district staff, and community you should all feel immense pride for the remarkable job that the coaching staff is doing in not only coaching these young men, but teaching them how to be leaders," Womack wrote.
DeKalb had traveled more than two hours for the game, and waited another two as Womack rushed from the hospital, where he had been with Franklin, to the school to gather his team.
"We were sympathetic to the circumstances and the events," Rohlman said in the Journal Sentinel. "We even told Coach Womack that it'd be OK to call off the game, but he said we had driven 2½ hours to get here and the kids wanted to play. So we said, 'Spend some time with your team and come out when you're ready.'"
The two schools had met twice previously, and this one ended with a Madison victory, but as in the other games, they also shared a pizza dinner, "four kids to a pizza, two Madison kids and two DeKalb kids," Womack told the Journal Sentinel.
"That letter became a big deal in DeKalb," Rohlman said in the paper. "We got lots of positive calls and e-mails because of it. Even though we lost the game, it was a true life lesson, and it's not one our kids are going to forget anytime soon."
Womack, in his letter to the DeKalb Daily Chronicle, added this at the end: "I'd like to recognize Darius who stepped up to miss the shot on purpose. He could have been selfish and cared only for his own stats [I hope Coach Rohlman doesn't make him run for missing the free throws]."
Two missed free throws, ordinarily the cause of a coach's headache, became the symbol of sportsmanship in a Milwaukee boys' basketball game earlier this month.
Milwaukee Madison senior Johntell Franklin, who lost his mother, Carlitha, to cancer on Saturday, Feb. 7, decided he wanted to play in that night's game against DeKalb (Ill.) High School after previously indicating he would sit out.
He arrived at the gym in the second quarter, but Franklin's name was not in the scorebook because his coach, Aaron Womack Jr., didn't expect him to be there.
Rules dictated Womack would have to be assessed a technical, but he was prepared to put Franklin in the game anyway. DeKalb coach Dave Rohlman and his players knew of the situation, and told the referees they did not want the call.
The referees had no choice. But Rohlman did.
"I gathered my kids and said, 'Who wants to take these free throws?'" Rohlman said, recounting the game to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "Darius McNeal put up his hand. I said, 'You realize you're going to miss, right?' He nodded his head."
McNeal, a senior point guard, went to the line. The Milwaukee Madison players stayed by their bench, waiting for the free throws. Instead of seeing the ball go through the net, they saw the ball on the court, rolling over the end line.
"I turned around and saw the ref pick up the ball and hand it back to the player," Womack said in the Journal Sentinel. "And then [McNeal] did the same thing again."
Said Rohlman: "Darius set up for a regular free throw, but he only shot it two or three feet in front of him. It bounced once or twice and just rolled past the basket."
"I did it for the guy who lost his mom," McNeal told the newspaper. "It was the right thing to do."
Womack, overwhelmed by DeKalb's gesture, wrote a letter to the DeKalb Daily Chronicle, which had first reported the story.
"As a principal, school, school district staff, and community you should all feel immense pride for the remarkable job that the coaching staff is doing in not only coaching these young men, but teaching them how to be leaders," Womack wrote.
DeKalb had traveled more than two hours for the game, and waited another two as Womack rushed from the hospital, where he had been with Franklin, to the school to gather his team.
"We were sympathetic to the circumstances and the events," Rohlman said in the Journal Sentinel. "We even told Coach Womack that it'd be OK to call off the game, but he said we had driven 2½ hours to get here and the kids wanted to play. So we said, 'Spend some time with your team and come out when you're ready.'"
The two schools had met twice previously, and this one ended with a Madison victory, but as in the other games, they also shared a pizza dinner, "four kids to a pizza, two Madison kids and two DeKalb kids," Womack told the Journal Sentinel.
"That letter became a big deal in DeKalb," Rohlman said in the paper. "We got lots of positive calls and e-mails because of it. Even though we lost the game, it was a true life lesson, and it's not one our kids are going to forget anytime soon."
Womack, in his letter to the DeKalb Daily Chronicle, added this at the end: "I'd like to recognize Darius who stepped up to miss the shot on purpose. He could have been selfish and cared only for his own stats [I hope Coach Rohlman doesn't make him run for missing the free throws]."
Saturday, February 14, 2009
One Year Anniversary
It has been one year since I started this blog. The experiment of doing a sports and theology blog. I've enjoyed doing this and it's something that I look forward to continuing to do into the next year. I'm sure there will be plenty of stories to choose from and reflect upon. For those of you that have been here since the beginning, thanks. I hope you continue on with me on this journey and bring others along with you.
Here's to another year reflecting on sports!
Here's to another year reflecting on sports!
Monday, February 9, 2009
Steroids: The Continued Black Eye on Baseball
It seems like the consequences of the use of steroids and "performance enhancing" drugs still seems to follow baseball like a shadow. The news that broke today that Alex Rodriguez admitted to taking steroids back in 2003.
Personally this saddens me. Understandably, I'm not a fan of A-Rod to begin with. This goes back to him leaving Seattle for that huge contract and then ending up with the Yankees. But it would have been nice if he wasn't on steroids so that there was the possiblity that he could break the records of Barry Bonds and 'clean' up the records. Now, that will not happen.
Growing up, I really did like baseball. But it seems like in the past decade and a half, the sport has done a lot to itself that it needs to make amends for (the strike, steroid scandal, no salary cap which makes for little parity). The sport has tried to turn things around. But it really needs to make the effort to do it. Otherwise, the sport will be supplanted (if it hasn't already) as "America's Pasttime"...
(The story itself can be seen at this link at SI.com
Personally this saddens me. Understandably, I'm not a fan of A-Rod to begin with. This goes back to him leaving Seattle for that huge contract and then ending up with the Yankees. But it would have been nice if he wasn't on steroids so that there was the possiblity that he could break the records of Barry Bonds and 'clean' up the records. Now, that will not happen.
Growing up, I really did like baseball. But it seems like in the past decade and a half, the sport has done a lot to itself that it needs to make amends for (the strike, steroid scandal, no salary cap which makes for little parity). The sport has tried to turn things around. But it really needs to make the effort to do it. Otherwise, the sport will be supplanted (if it hasn't already) as "America's Pasttime"...
(The story itself can be seen at this link at SI.com
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Tracy McGrady and Darfur
I was thinking about what next to blog about. There was the Super Bowl and how the game went (which I thought ended wrongly, should've been reviewed). There was the issue with Michael Phelps and the picture of him smoking marajuana (he was wrong in doing that, at least he took responsiblity when it came out).
But when I saw this article, I thought this was the one I would share and speak on. In September 2007, Tracy McGrady, All-Star Forward for the Houston Rockets went to the Darfur region in Sudan to see for himself what was going on there with the genocide. It was an eye-opening experience for him and from that has helped to establish the Darfur Dream Team Sister Schools program. Here's the description of the program from their website (http://www.darfurdreamteam.org/):
The Sister Schools Program is an initiative to connect American middle schools, high schools, colleges, and universities with sister schools in the 12 refugee camps in Chad. The two main objectives of the program are: (1) to provide a quality education to every refugee child from Darfur and (2) to develop connections between students from Darfur and the U.S. Through the Sister Schools Program, students in the U.S. will make commitments to a UN-affiliated registry for items such as textbooks and teacher training. Video linkages between the schools in the camps and the U.S. schools will connect the students and be a vehicle for cross-cultural exchange. NBA players will be major recruiters for the program and will also make financial contributions to refugee camp schools.
It is good to hear these stories getting out. Athletes are role models and they can make an impact both negatively and positively. I'm glad to hear that Tracy is involved in something like this. More people need to hear about the evils that are taking place in Darfur and the responsibility, especially of those who follow Jesus, to get involved in effecting change there.
I'll leave you with this video that documents some of Tracy's visit to Darfur:
(The article was from ESPN.com and can be viewed here)
But when I saw this article, I thought this was the one I would share and speak on. In September 2007, Tracy McGrady, All-Star Forward for the Houston Rockets went to the Darfur region in Sudan to see for himself what was going on there with the genocide. It was an eye-opening experience for him and from that has helped to establish the Darfur Dream Team Sister Schools program. Here's the description of the program from their website (http://www.darfurdreamteam.org/):
The Sister Schools Program is an initiative to connect American middle schools, high schools, colleges, and universities with sister schools in the 12 refugee camps in Chad. The two main objectives of the program are: (1) to provide a quality education to every refugee child from Darfur and (2) to develop connections between students from Darfur and the U.S. Through the Sister Schools Program, students in the U.S. will make commitments to a UN-affiliated registry for items such as textbooks and teacher training. Video linkages between the schools in the camps and the U.S. schools will connect the students and be a vehicle for cross-cultural exchange. NBA players will be major recruiters for the program and will also make financial contributions to refugee camp schools.
It is good to hear these stories getting out. Athletes are role models and they can make an impact both negatively and positively. I'm glad to hear that Tracy is involved in something like this. More people need to hear about the evils that are taking place in Darfur and the responsibility, especially of those who follow Jesus, to get involved in effecting change there.
I'll leave you with this video that documents some of Tracy's visit to Darfur:
(The article was from ESPN.com and can be viewed here)
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Super Bowl XLIII Prediction
Well, it's time for the prediction for the Super Bowl. I'll be short and sweet. I don't like Pittsburgh. I'm not going to root for Pittsburgh, and I don't pick a team I can't root for. So that in of itself turns me to Arizona. Plus, the Cardinals are an NFC West team. I know I wasn't on the bandwagon before but I'm willing to admit that I'm willing to get back on now. So because of that (and the high explosive offense that the Cards have), I'm going to go with the Cards for the win.
Cardinals over Steelers 34-21
MVP: Kurt Warner
Cardinals over Steelers 34-21
MVP: Kurt Warner
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